The Arts in Wellington 1890-1912: A Cultural and Social Study

Abstract

It has become almost a fashion among some New Zealanders to belittle the cultural life of this country in the early years of the century. The materialistic outlook of the society has been accentuated out of all proportion to reality and a picture of an aesthetic desert presented with convincing veracity. The credulous are even astonished to learn that some of the finest talents in the population did not leave the colony. Such a picture is invariably the result of a comparison of colonial conditions with those of London, the inevitable model of excellence. Of course, such a comparison is flagrantly unjust unless the limitations of the colonial setting are borne in mind. Neither population, nor the concentration of talent, nor wealthy and intelligent patrons, nor the subtle influence of living traditions could be found in a city or country so young. Without these factors, and others of varying significance, no foundations for a local cultural life could be easily or securely laid. The rift in emotional life, too, with its resulting conflict of loyalties towards the Old Country and the new land, had in itself a sterilizing effect on the rise of a truly national outlook and expression. Hence there is little that is enduring from this period to challenge the detractors of the nineteen-fifties. A little booklet on Wellington published about the year 1900 stated quite boldly that "the Wellington citizen is a creature of business instincts and seldom of anything else". Katherine Mansfield, no doubt, in the flush of her nostalgia for the London she had grown to love, would have heartily endorsed this view. Yet it would be most unjust to deny to many citizens the possession of a keen interest in the arts, both for their own sake and as a tempering and enriching catalyst in a young and raw society. The variety and quantity of entertainment, particularly dramatic and musical, seem astonishing when it is remembered that the metropolitan area did not yet number 50,000 souls. Even poetry and painting were not neglected; such men as Sir Harold Beauchamp found time during a busy commercial and public life to indulge a sincere interest in painting and the foundation of the National Art Gallery, at Wellington, owes much to his initiative and financial generosity.